Microsoft
Corp. (MSFT) is viewed by
many as the slumbering giant of the smartphone market. With arguably the most
innovative interface available on a smartphone today, the platform is
mainly lacking in polish and selection.

The company's answer to those shortcomings is one word -- Mango. Mango -- the
Windows Phone 7.1 update -- promises more of everything good about
Windows 7; more polish (notably third party multi-tasking, third party tiles,
streamlined Office software, and a dramatically improved HTML5-ready browser)
and more phones.

As far as the more phones part of the equation, we're starting to get a feel
for what's in store when Mango launches in September. Among the high-profile
players to commit to Mango devices are Nokia Oyj. (HEL:NOK1V), Samsung Electronics
Comp., Ltd. (SEO:005930), HTC
Corp. (SEO:066570), LG
Electronics (SEO:066570), Acer
Inc. (TPE:2353), ZTE Corp. (SHE:000063), and Huawei
technologies. Fujitsu Ltd. (TYO:6702) and Dell,
Inc. (DELL) are also rumored to be
preparing designs.

HTC, perhaps a bit concerned about its legal
troubles with its Android OS line, is diving deep into Mango with
multiple handsets. Two low-end models -- the keyboard equipped Prime and
the touchscreen-only Ignite have been spotted after being accidentally posted
by Dutch retailer Phone
House. Both phones pack a lowly 800 MHz processor, 512MB of RAM,
5MP camera, and 3.7-inch LCD display.

Moving to the cream of the crop, HTC will be pushing the definition of a
"smart phone" with its giant "Eternity" handset. With
a whopping 4.7-inch SLCD screen, the Eternity is almost the Windows Phone 7 tablet
which some users have demanded. It will pack a 1.5GHz single-core
Snapdragon processor, 16GB of storage, an 8MP rear camera, and a 1.3MP front
camera. This handset will surely prompt debate over whether slower
Android phones with more cores are "better" or whether a faster
single core is better suited for a smart phone. Images of the Eternity
have already leaked.

Samsung, meanwhile is preparing a model with a slide-out bottom keyboard, the
SGH-i677. Little is known about the specs or official name, at this
point. Likewise, the hardware for Nokia's much-anticipated
"Sea Ray" -- rumored to launch in October at Nokia World --
is unknown.

If Microsoft can flood the market with high quality offerings, it could overwhelm
Apple, Inc. (AAPL) to seize second place --
something DailyTech and a number of top analysts predicted [1][2]
would happen within the next couple of years. From there the company can
move on to challenging Google Inc.'s (GOOG) prolific Android
platform for world domination.

Windows Phone 7, officially hit its
release to manufacturing (RTM) build just days ago. It appears on pace to
meet its planned release schedule.

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This is a question I ask everyone who says this - what can you NOT find in the store?

I've been looking through the marketplace for several months and I have not found anything, yet, that I can't find. Granted, sometimes I can't find a FREE offering, and sometimes the app I find sucks. . . but that's the same way it is with the Android I have as well. . .

And, "limit what can and can't be on the marketplace just because they don't like redundancy" - you mean Apple?

"limit what can and can't be on the marketplace just because they don't like redundancy" People can't make a substitute to windows live messenger or the browser. It's not allowed. They don't like apps that replace default functionality.

You can't publish emulators in the marketplace (so no playing classics from snes, nes or genesis) and if you could, you'd have a mess in your pseudo-filesystem because of the no folders policy. As I've said before, if you can't find nothing wrong with it, then fine by you. I can find plenty of things that are deal-breakers for me (gap-less playback being the first).

I agree with you in some way yes you cannot not do these things but that was kind of stated it is a bridge between the wild west of droid and the homogenized pleasantville of apple you can not created a web browser because the vast majority would just be the browser control dropped on a form and the browser control is ie9 which is one of the things i think is wrong with android market there is too much crap to wade through to find something intresting apple on the other hand goes to an extreme and blocks things just because some group of people might find offnese to its content I appologize if you some how feel personally attacked when windows phone users try to point out the many things we though were wrong with the other guys thats why we have them but its simply because for the momment every other android and iphone user is trying to make us feel like we are some how lower classed citizen for our choice for the fact you pratically have to beg a sales person to sell you the phone because they are programmed with one or the other camp with out really understanding any of the technology behind themi really dont think that nintendo and sega are asking or would be denied if they wanted to make emulators for the platform (although you could argue they are ther are several arcade classic in the market) so i do understand your point unless you are upset that you can not create an emulator on your own and sell it for profit or play roms you probably downloaded from some bit torrent then thats fine i dont think thats an issueisolated storage is a very innovative aproach um you do know that you can just think of it as a folder its just a private folder for each app and again what the issue if a developer created and app that collected some sort of data then they would obviously provide some mechanism to retrieve that data other wise really then what is the point or are you more upset that you can not just plug your phone in and copy whatever you want and do what ever you want to the data ok why? what is it that you want to do so badi get it androids cool and all and as a dev i think its intresting but it stops there for me when it comes to production environment droid is cool too play with i can make that device do anyhthing i wanted to do its a great little toy but i need a phone and device that is secure and can run the applications i need and want there are only 2 real moder OSes iOS and windows phone and this is mainly where my preffrence comes to play i am not a fan of apple they make cool stuff but i find it to normally be overpriced and not really very cutting edge its like 1920's modern it looks cool and futuristic on the outside but its last years parts on the inside and as a primarily windows users apple products do not integrate the way i would expect into my environment

I have nothing against people choosing whatever phone OS they want. What I have a problem with is people shoving their preference on me. WP7 is a great OS and I respect it a lot more than iOS. I'm a fan of Windows 7 for PCs and have nothing against Microsoft.

The reason I don't use WP7 is because I'm used to the freedom a desktop OS provides. WP7 is not there and will not be there anytime soon (unless Microsoft somehow chooses to do things differently).

Besides, I'm not a fan of Microsoft services, I use Google Apps for my work a lot, so Android fits a bit better with that.

Anyway, to each their own. I don't believe that the way to defend your preference is to attack those who don't share it. That'll only get you so far. After all, not everyone is a fanboy.